Scientists Say All People Innately Believe in God

Post Reply New Topic

Is it possible? Atheists don't really exist? Everyone really does believe in God?

This isn't really news, you know. There isn't anywhere in the world you can travel and meet people and question them about God and get blank looks, like, "What in the world are you talking about? God? What is God?"

No, in fact, even in the most pagan and animistic of cultures, (even those that hold to millions of different gods,) they all know about GOD. And when questioned, they not only know about Him but they're also afraid of Him. Why? Because of all the bad things they've done against Him.

That's why when the Gospel is preached to these most pagan and heathenistic of people, there is a ready opening in all of them. Fascinating. All people everywhere admit in God and their personal sins against Him.

Except on this forum, of course! No sinners in need of a Savior here!

I'd like to read the original scientific articles that you refer to and know who the reputable psychologists are who have reached these wild conclusions. What are the links? The only reference in the link you give is to a "Christian creationist astronomer" who is making these claims.

I'll just add that your thread title sounds like another one of your hyperbole filled statements that fails to live up to its claims like the misinformation/lies in your last thread. I'm sure that plenty of the other atheists who participate in this forum will be along shortly to pour cold water on your vacuous claims.

^+1


Hooday the demand for evidence caused you to run away from the last thread you started. Well here we go again.

Evidence please! Oh and by the way evidence in this context does not equate to 'some guy with a degree from a borderline bogus university has this idea'. NO, it means evidence garnered though anthropological, sociological, psychological, neurological studies. Meta-analysis is fine as long as the collators have taken into account studies which do not agree with their innate prejudice.


To be honest I am surprised you are attempting this kind of nonsense again after the shellacking you ignorant understanding of science and history received the last time. But oh well here we go.

Oh by the way I am still waiting for that tiniest morsel of empirical data that will challenge my understanding of the natural world. Trust me, all you have to do is provide the merest of evidence that you might be correct and I will take it extremely seriously.

So now you have two sets of evidence to produce. I think its best I do not hold my breath.

Hooday, many of your outrageous claims in other threads have been debunked, and it seems that rather than acknowledge this or try to defend them you just abandon those threads to start new ones. The most wonderful thing about the internet is that it is easier than ever to investigate such claims, so fewer and fewer people are swallowing such whoppers compared to past generations when it was more difficult to access information to check their veracity.

If you only rely on fundamentalist Christian sources for your information on any subject, in many cases you are being LIED to by those sources. That to me is one of the most shameful things about many of these debates: that the side that tries to claim the moral high ground is in fact the side that is spreading distortions and falsehoods in the name of God. Educate yourself please. You are not going to convert anyone to your way of thinking when your claims are either unsubstantiated or debunked.

I think you have just shot yourself in the foot Hooday, from what I have just read of Pascal Boyer his book Religion Explained is not an attempt to give evidence supporting God, rather it is an explanation of why we seem to believe in all kinds of supernatural nonsense from gods, ghosts, demons and witches. From the little I have read it would appear that he has used modern neuroscience coupled with anthropology to understand how are brains are wired and in this way show how we are able to delude ourselves.

As I said I have only seen a little of his work, but unlike you I am now going to get "Religion Explained" and read the whole book rather than post cherry picked snippets that have been used out of context.

This topic is going places!

How does a graphite pencil draw a red tick? (pic in the article)

The rest doesn't make more sense either. More people raised religious become atheists nowadays than vice versa.

According to the latest Gallup poll from May 2014, 11-12 percent of US citizens state that they do not believe in god. That amounts to about 35-38 million people in the whole US, or equivalent to almost the entire population of the state of California.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

Anyway, there are countries where the non-religious make up a much larger percentage of the population than the US, so it is safe to assume not all people believe in god.

Hooday thus strikes again with another misleading thread title.

This article is by the same guy who alternates between the "god doesn't provide proof because it would diminish faith," and "let show you some evidence that God exists" arguments, often in the same paragraph.

As for the "scientists" mentioned,

Graham Lawton is a writer for Slate (not a scientist, but an avowed atheist) who has written about psychadelics and neurology based existentialism. He did write an article about how the brain is physiologically capable of belief without evidence (i.e. that rustling in the bushes could be a lion). He also wrote that atheists may be predisposed to belief in "religious" things, such as a soul, the supernatural, and/or the paranormal.

Pascal Boyer is an anthropologist who was lambasted by many Christians when he released his book about how and why people started on the religion track. It was an entirely naturalistic account, not a spiritual one. He also states that innate "religious belief" is the source of belief in karma, reincarnation, and cosmic justice. He has also compared a belief in god to natural tendencies of children to have imaginary friends.

The OP's article is based on another article (which was written by a journalist), and he apparently only read the title of the attention grabbing online article. Here is a link to the article referenced, which is not pro-Christianity:

http://www.science20.com/writer_on_the_edge/blog/scientists_discover_that_atheists_might_not_exist_and_thats_not_a_joke-139982

To sum up the gist of the article, here is a quote:

That people understand the concept of a God does not mean that people fear or believe in a God. The only reason people know the concept of a God is because that idea was taught to them by someone when they were a child, by a never ending chain of people who were taught the concept of a God in childhood. Just as you were. Some people grow out of it and learn how to think for themselves. Others do not.

I think that its simply the only means we humans have to comprehend the universe. Even though we've formulated countless theories which break down the seemingly supernatural into codifiable processes we still have not banished god to myth. I think god will be the one enduring theme in human history